Has Peter given up! Today’s Gospel is the story of Jesus’ appearance to seven disciples at the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee. The seven disciples are Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael, Zebedee’s two sons, and two other disciples. Peter seems ready to return to his old vocation: “I am going fishing” he declares, and the others say, “We also will come with you.” Jesus appears to them on the shore and instructs them to cast their net over the right side of the boat. By the miraculous catch of fish, they recognized that it is the risen Lord on the shore.
The risen Lord is now calling them once again to be fishers not of fish but to be “fishers of men and women.” As this gospel passage goes on, Peter who three times denies that he knows Jesus, is asked three times by Jesus: “Do you love me?” (John 21:15, 16, 17). Peter now reconciled to the Lord is given his pastoral ministry: “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.” Peter and the other disciples are called to evangelize, to preach the message of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Gospel message is simple and profound, the message of love:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17).
Like these first disciples you and I through our baptism are called to “go fishing.”
This week we both mourn and thank God for Pope Francis. Like the popes before him each in their own way, Pope Francis has called us back to the core of our Christian faith. That core is the experience of the love and mercy of God. Pope Francis at the beginning of his papacy issued an invitation to all of us to encounter Jesus. He continues now to issue that same invitation from heaven:
“I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.” (“The Joy of the Gospel,” #3).
Image: “15 The Disciples fish all night but catch nothing” by fz1844 is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.